Close Quarters
by Uprise
Summary: After a failed evil plan, Bowser and Starlow are forced to remain in each other's company for an indefinite period of time. (BowserxStarlow)
1. Shocking Discovery

**1: Shocking Discovery**

* * *

The sun shone brightly over the tree lined horizon. The soft calls of the birds complimented the soothing swaying of the grass in the breeze. The peaceful atmosphere could be easily enjoyed by anyone who had gone outside that day.  
Except for the troops of the Koopa King himself.  
Bowser commanded his troops to employ haste in the development of his newest scheme. The heat escaping from the boiling lava sea surrounding the castle made his demeanor appear even more intense. The troops lugging heavy equipment around in the high temperature presented itself more as a test of stamina than an evil plan, though the amount of work being done could be considered the real evil component.  
"You there, with the wires!" He pointed at a slower-than-usual goomba, carrying colorful coils on his head. "Move faster, I don't got all day!"  
"Yes, your Grouchiness!" he exclaimed before running off.  
Kamek approached Bowser on his levitating broomstick.  
"Your Inventiveness, the machine's major components are in place. All that's left to install are few connections and some accessories," he reported.  
"Excellent," he replied, "this thing should be done by the time that crimson clad crud gets here."  
Kamek nodded then took on a look of perplexion.  
"Your Surliness, if I may?"  
"What now?"  
"How did you come up with designs for such a... complex device? Since you usually leave all the creating to us, I'd never think for you to do it yourself."  
"I'm Bowser, baby! I've got one of the greatest minds the world has ever seen!"  
"Yeah, and plans that mirror it," Kamek muttered.  
"That, and that fool Fawful left all his tech behind, so I got a few ideas," he said as he took out a blueprint.  
The device in question was a sort of energy bond. Energy absorbed from a source could be used to bind a subject to another on levels beyond that of a physical realm. There was no need for an energy source if one of the subjects generates sufficient energy. In this case, the subject was a glass-bound Princess Peach with her fists up against the wall of her container.  
"Mario's going to give you such a beating when he gets here!" she fumed.  
Bowser's face lit up at this.  
"On the contrary, Princess." He walked up to the glass.  
"You see, the wish power that this baby is gonna drain from you will make a magical bond between you and me that's near unbreakable," he explained. "So whatever happens to me is gonna happen to you, too, so Mario can't lay a finger on me if he wants to keep you safe!"  
Bowser cackles loudly as Peach gazes into the fiery horizon.  
"Please hurry, Mario..." she whispers hopefully.  
As if on cue, the portly plumber hops on top of the balcony, followed by his lanky brother and their Star Sprite companion, all taking a battle stance.  
"Bowser!" Mario starts. "Hand over the Princess and we won't stomp you as hard as last time!"  
Bowser started to chuckle at his enemy's demand.  
"Your determination shines through as always, Mario, but that's not gonna happen."  
"Bowser, " Starlow chimes in, "it's only been like 2 weeks since you tried to kidnap the Princess. Dontcha think you should give it a rest for a bit?"  
That all too familiar voice brought Bowser back memories of their previous endeavor. Chippy was the little voice inside that always told him the best set of actions to take, despite not always taking them due to him feeling like she was out of her place. After all, it was _his_ body. The body she helped restore fire-breathing abilities to. The body she promised to fix up while in its state of disrepair. The body she promised to make so great that he could even beat Mario with. She made him so hopeful and confident, making him lose the feeling of being invaded and gain a sense of security with her presence, a deep trust in her. His memory-restoring, crust-cleaning, pain-stopping (and sometimes starting), sassy, talkative minion. Sure he didn't beat Mario afterwards, but the way she made him feel overpowered the weight of the losses. As Bowser reminisced, he just stared at her with a warm, albeit small smile.

"Bowser?" Starlow questioned. "You there?"

"Huh?" he snapped out of his trance with a small, almost unnoticeable blush. He then donned an evil grin. "The only stomping that's gonna happen here is the kind my troops will deliver on you!" He pointed his finger at the group. "Attack!"

A hoard of Goombas, Para-Koopas, and Bob-ombs rushed into the Bros. Mario and Luigi, being familiar with the troops tactics of rushing the enemy handled them effectively. Stomping the Goombas and lobbing the Bob-ombs at the Para-Koopas made swift work. Bowser made his way over to the machine in the racket of the battle. He attached a headband to his forehead and pressed a few buttons on the interface. Soon, pink energy began emanating out of Peach and into the wires attached to her container. Peach let out a gasp and started to panic.

"Help!" she shouted in the direction of the fight, hoping to get the attention of the Bros. Mario and Luigi stopped for a second upon hearing the distressed voice. They finished off the last of the troops and started making their way over to the container. Before they got too far, however, Kamek blocked their path with his fully charged wand in the air.

"I call this one," he began, "Spell No. 2!"

He cast magical energy upon the Bros. which seemed to do nothing at all. He let out a chuckle and flew off. The brothers shrugged it off and prepared to continue toward the machine, but they didn't seem to be getting any closer.

"Mario!" Luigi cried. "I can't walk anywhere!"

"Me either! That nasty old wizard put our legs to sleep!"

They fell to the ground with a thud, unable to do anything about Peach's weakening calls for help.

"Starlow! It's up to you now!" Mario shouted.

"Find a way to bust the Princess outta that thing she's in!" Luigi followed up.

"Already on it!" she replied, carrying a lit Bob-omb toward the machine. She tossed it at the glass when the fuse reached its end. The explosion created a sufficiently sized hole in the glass for the Princess to exit from, or rather fall out of, having been drained of her energies to the point of exhaustion. Starlow picked her up by the arm to lead her away from the machine, but Bowser wouldn't allow his rightfully kidnapped prize to leave so easily. He tapped a few more commands into the interface and the machine hummed much louder. The draining force accelerated, sucking Peach and Starlow back into the container. The gravitation was almost too much to resist for one Star Sprite, so, in an act of selflessness, Starlow shoved Peach away from the machine with all her might and allowed herself to become victim to the greedy device.

"WHAT?!" Bowser exclaimed. "PUT HER BACK!"

Right then, electricity began flying out of the container giving Starlow and Bowser a brief moment of electrocution. After a few seconds, the electricity stopped and the machine's humming came to a halt. Starlow and Bowser fell in a daze after basically experiencing the rush of being a live wire. Flames erupted from the casing of the contraption and its components began to fall out.

"No no no no no!" the Bros. said simultaneously as they hobbled over to their friends with half-asleep legs. Mario picked up the Princess, still unconscious.

"She's still breathing," Mario sighed in relief. Luigi stepped over burning fragments to the machine to see if Starlow was alright when she and Bowser stirred from their literal power nap.

"Oh jeez," she moaned, "what just happened?" She picked herself off the ground.

"Not sure," Luigi stated, "but I think we won."

"Quick, let's get outta here while Bowser's still drowsy," Mario suggested. They agreed by following him down the balcony. As Starlow started flying after them, she felt a sharp yank that halted her movement.

"Oof!"

"What's wrong, Starlow?" Mario questioned with concern in his face.

"I can't seem to move any further, and I don't know why," she explained. She tried to distance herself from the machine again, but she was once again halted by some odd yanking force. As she pulled back, a glowing, rope-like emanance illuminated from her body. She studied the object's golden glow along its length, which led from her body, transitioned to a bright orange, and ended at…

"Bowser?" she looked at his awakening body. "Why is the other end of this weird tether attached to him?" Bowser opened his eyes and glanced at the odd connection between him and Starlow before it faded into transparency again. He stood up and looked at the machine in its flaming, discombobulated state.

His eyes grew wide with distress as he put two and two together.

"You gotta be kidding me!" he shouted. "INSTEAD OF THE PRINCESS, I GOT STUCK WITH MISS CHATTERBOX?! DANG IT!"

"Bowser, you have to fix this!" Starlow told him.

"Yeah, or we'll just have to stomp some answers out of you!" Mario added.

"You can't hurt me, Mario, not this time," Bowser grinned. "This machine was designed to create a powerful magical bond between two people, so basically if I get hurt, so does big mouth over here."

"Mario we gotta do something!" Luigi panicked. "We can't just leave her in his clutches like this!"

"It's ok guys, I'll find a way out of this," Starlow reassured them. "Just go take Peach back home so she can rest."

"But-" Luigi tried.

"There isn't much you can do right now but play by his rules. I can manage, just go take care of Peach," She told them.

They nodded and leapt off the balcony and onto the path back to Peach's Castle. Starlow watched them go and let out a sigh. She turned to Bowser, who was grumbling with his arms crossed.

"I almost had control over the whole kingdom but some kind folks just _had_ to stop by."

"Alright, Bowser," Starlow started. "How do we fix this?"

* * *

Alrighty this is the first thing I've ever written so tell me how it is and I'll try to iron out the bugs best I can.

Have a nice day, folks


	2. Opening Up

**2: Opening Up**

* * *

"We can't," he said simply.

Starlow showed a somewhat shocked expression. "What do you mean we can't? Isn't there some sort of undo button or something?"

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I didn't make one because I didn't think I'd have to, and even if I did," he gestured to the smoldering heaps of metal, "it wouldn't be of much use right now, would it?"

She turned toward the scraps. "Oh… right." She looked down but snapped back up to Bowser. "Hey, wait a minute. Why didn't you go after the Bros. for Peach?"

He looked back at her. "What, and have you nag me the whole way over there? No thank you." He gazed back at the horizon. "Besides, I can get Peach later, and even then my machine's still busted. There'd be no real point to it now," he sighed. He started to the exit of the balcony and she followed to avoid being tugged by her magical constraint.

His response fascinated her. She'd never seen him think so much before his actions, something he did almost never in their previous adventure. Was he correct about how much she talked and was what she'd said rubbing off on him a little? Starlow concluded that it probably wasn't the case as she sensed something else about his demeanor: sadness. What was he sad about, though? He already noted that he could re-kidnap Peach, and he couldn't feel that defeated about some machine he probably had his minions make for him. Starlow let her curiosity get the best of her.

"Bowser?" she started softly.

He grunted in response as he went down some stairs.

"Are you… upset about something?"

"What's it to you?"

"It always makes you feel better to talk about something, you know."

"Why would you wanna make me feel better?"

"Well, it seems we're gonna be stuck to each other for a while, so the best I can do to make you feel better about this situation is to help you with your problems."

They reached the bottom of the stairs and he turned to her. "You are my problem." He quickly turned down one of the hallways to be followed closely by Starlow.

She scoffed. "C'mon, Bowser! I know I'm not your problem. You're not gonna feel any better by acting like that."

He stopped and looked at her with slight anger. "Listen up. I don't really talk about my feelings and junk. It ain't my style."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Can't you let go of your oversized ego for one second?"

He glared at her. "My ego is fine the way it is! Even if I did 'let it go', I gotta know you pretty well before I can spill all my business to ya."

She flew up to eye level to match his stare. "Did you already forget? I know you inside and out, probably better than anyone else, actually. I've been inside your brain before, Bowser. If you won't tell me what your deal is, then I'll probably just figure it out sooner or later anyway."

He threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine! I'll tell you, sheesh!" He continued to some red doors at the end of the corridor. "Why do women gotta be on your back all the time? Leave a guy alone for a second," he huffed. He opened them into what she recognized as his bedroom. It was just as neat and organized as it was before, minus a trash can overflowing with crumpled blueprints. He sat on one end of his bed and Starlow landed on the other.

"Ok, lay it out for me."

He crossed his arms and looked at the floor. "Well… you see, uh… it's kinda like… um…" he started.

"Uh huh?"

"Erm.. I sorta think… that, uh… y'see…" he rambled on.

"Spit it out, man!" she said a little impatiently.

"Okay, chill! You know how I planned to bind Princess Peach to me magically so Mario couldn't hurt me to get her back because he would also hurt her and I'd have leverage over everyone in the kingdom and rule it with an iron fist?" he spat out.

"Uh… yes?"

"Well I was thinking, sure it'd be cool to have all of that power but," his face became dark again, "what about Peach?"

"What about her?" Starlow inquired. "You'd have her all to yourself and nobody could do anything about it."

"Yeah but would she like it? I don't think she'd wanna be stuck to me forever. I don't think she likes me at all, now that I think about it."

"You're just realizing this now?"

"Not really, I thought about it before but I always convinced myself that maybe she was secretly into me."

"I seriously doubt that."

He laid down on the bed with his face lost in thought. "The more I think about it, is there really a point to kidnapping her? Why do I even want to be with some woman forever if she's not even into me?"

Starlow looked bewildered. The depth of Bowser's words was a great deal to take in. She'd never in a million years anticipate someone as bold and hardheaded as the Koopa King himself to have an existential crisis, let alone even know what one was.

"Maybe you do it for the power?" she ventured a guess.

"Ehhhhh," he thought. "I guess so. It's a relatively small price to pay for control over the entire kingdom."

Starlow sighed in slight relief that Bowser wasn't planning to enter some sort of state of depression. That'd never get the two of them separated.

He sat up again."Plus, it gets me outta bed in the morning."

She gave a small chuckle, to which Bowser smirked. He already felt better from their conversation. He didn't want to admit it but she could already tell by his smile.

"What about you, Chippy? Why do you do what you do? You got a thing for plumbers or what?"

"Oh me? No, I don't have a thing for plumbers. I have a thing for helping people, though, always have."

"Helping people?" Bowser jokingly pointed a finger in his mouth. "Yuck! What's so great about that?"

Starlow smiled and rolled her eyes. "I just like making people happy y'know? It's awesome that you can do stuff to make something better than it is for someone."

"Ah," he replied. "Must be a hero thing."

"You know that feeling, you've felt it before," she insisted.

"Hello? Evil king here? Yeah right," he dismissed.

"Remember when you beat Fawful and that dark version of yourself?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Didn't it feel good?"

"I was just happy that I made that big blue wannabe history. Nobody copies the Koopa King and gets away with it. Besides, he didn't even get all of my personality right. His whole existence was a pain in the neck. Glad I could be the one to end it."

"..Yeah," she managed, not knowing what to say to the grim thought. "But I guess everyone sees it differently."

They looked at each other in silence, noticing more and more about each other's appearances. Starlow took note of how pointy his horns were. Her eyes shifted to his very vibrant orange hair and found it very similar to a fire. Bowser glanced at the little floating star above her head and how it pulsated from bright to dark periodically. They both ended up looking back at each other's eyes, warranting from them both a small blush. Upon realizing what he was doing, Bowser shook his head and put on a serious face. Starlow just kept smiling at him.

He broke the silence first. "We should probably find a way to fix this thing."

"Right, good idea. Anywhere you think we can get some information about this?"

He got off the bed and started to the door. "Yeah, there's a library downstairs. We can look for a book or something in there."

Starlow was taken aback by this. "Hold on, you have a library? In your castle?"

"Take it easy, I don't ever use it, so I haven't read the latest issue of 'How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Evil Plan Monthly' if that's what you're thinking."

She chuckled and smiled to herself. "Hey," she got his attention.

"What?"

"Thanks for opening up to me."

"Whatever." They continued down the hallway to another large flight of stairs, illuminated with metal chandeliers.

'Maybe this isn't gonna be so bad after all,' she thought to herself.

Maybe she was right.

* * *

Okay peeps, Chapter 2 is here. I had to rewrite this one a few times because it wasn't too good in the first rendition. More coming soon


	3. Orange, Yellow and Read All Over

**3: Orange, Yellow and Read All Over**

* * *

Mario and Luigi stood by the bed of a sleeping Peach. The watched her breathe in and out ever so peacefully as they wondered what their next plan of action should be.

"Hmmm," Mario thought out loud. "Maybe we can cut the two of them apart?"

"I dunno, bro," Luigi replied, " I don't think that bond is really there. Like we can't really touch it. He said it was magic, remember?"

"Oh yeah, right." He scratched his moustache.

"Our ideas are running dry without any clue what this thing even is."

"Magic isn't really my strong point." Mario got an idea. "You think we can ask Kamek about this? I bet he knows a lot about magic."

"I'm not sure he's gonna be too keen on helping us out," Luigi figured.

"Another good point, bro." He turned back to the resting princess. "Who else would know a lot about this stuff, then?"

"Y'know, maybe the person who knows the most about Peach's magic is Peach herself."

"So you're saying we should just wait for her to wake up and ask her about it?"

"That's about right."

Mario gave a thumbs up. "Sounds good, Luigi. But…"

"Hmm?"

"How long is that gonna take?"

"We've got some time, Starlow said she was gonna be alright," he assured Mario.

"I sure hope she's right."

* * *

The magically-bound captives arrived at a decrepit, dimly lit area. The decently sized room was illuminated by many candles suspended on dusty, metal chandeliers whose light gave decent visibility to the indigo of the carpeting. The atmosphere was perfect for reading, being bright enough to distinguish small text yet dark enough to not worsen a headache. The room was filled with dark, wooden bookshelves which housed many worn books of magic and spells, either neatly placed or strewn within. A table by the far wall, supporting some randomly placed texts and a lit candle, was accompanied by two chairs on opposite sides.

"This is your library?" Starlow looked the room over. "It looks really… interesting."

"Kamek puts his magic books and junk in here so maybe he's got something that can fix this," Bowser returned.

They walked in, noting the books on the floor and the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling.

"How 'bout I look over here," Bowser gestured to the left side of the room, "and you look over there?" he pointed to the right side of the room. "If you think you've got something, tell me and we'll check it out."

"Sounds good." She tried to fly over to the right, but was instantly reminded of their predicament with a sharp tug back toward Bowser.

"Ack!" She fell to the ground. The tether glowed, adding a bit more light to the room's moody environment.

"Oh yeah." Bowser grinned nervously. "Sorry 'bout that."

Starlow rolled her eyes and flew back up. "Maybe I'll just look at this shelf and you can look at that one," she offered.

"Yeah let's do that instead."

Starlow scanned the amassment of colorful books of which to possibly read over. The majority of them bore no titles, but were emblazoned with symbols to offer some clue as to what they held within. Being rather unfamiliar with magic, she couldn't conclude exactly what each book did. Bowser wasn't having any luck, either. Pinpointing the book that read of magical people-binding energy ropes was far from easy.

Starlow sucked her teeth. "I can't really understand what each of these is for."

"Me either," Bowser agreed. "Why don't we just pick a few and look em over? One of these has gotta have something we can use."

"Yeah alright."

Bowser took out a yellow book that bore a star symbol. He glanced at Starlow, once again noting the small, pulsating star over her head. "Close enough I guess." He tucked the book under his shoulder. He scanned the shelf again for anything else interesting looking and spotted a jade book whose symbol was rather odd, sporting three arrows in a circle. "Sorta looks like a rope," he concluded and added the book to his collection.

Starlow located a pinkish book with a heart symbol upon its spine. "Well, whenever Peach uses her magic, hearts appear everywhere, so this might have something about that in it," she assumed. She put her feet on the spine and tried to slide it out of the surrounding books. When it got the the edge of the shelf, she prepared to lift it outward and upward but underestimated how heavy the book actually was and was met with a sudden plummet to the floor. "Wah!" she exclaimed as she tried to hold on. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact with the floor, but it never came. She opened her eyes and looked around to see what happened and saw that Bowser had caught the book in his free hand.

"I gotcha," he said almost protectively.

"Oh," she blushed at him. "T-thanks." She released the book so he could comfortably position it in his hand.

He grinned at her. "Whaddya do without me to help you carry your books?"

She smiled at him. "Ha well y'see I saw the book on the shelf and I guessed it wasn't that big so I grabbed it because I didn't think it was gonna be that heavy but it was and I-"

He put his hand with the book up, stopping her. "Hey, hey, take it easy, I get it. It's fine."

She stuttered and finally managed to get out, "Thanks, again."

"No sweat, now let's check these for anything useful." He made his way to the table in the back of the room. "I hope we don't gotta keep this up for long, reading ain't really my thing."

Bowser set the books on the cluttered table. To make room to read the selected books in the light of the candle, Bowser put all of the other books into a tall stack and lifted it off the table. As he did this, Starlow watched him lift up the large novels with ease. She could've sworn she'd saw his bicep twitch before he set them on the ground and spread their selection across the table. She caught herself staring in fascination before making her way to one side of the table, which permitted them the maximum distance they could be from each other.

"Bowser?"

He sat in the chair opposite her."What?"

"What's it like to..." she hesitated, looked down and looked back at him, "to have arms?"

He raised an eyebrow at the question. She panicked as she took this as a sign that he didn't know what she meant by asking it.

"Y'know because I don't really have any arms to do anything with and I see you doing all kinds of cool stuff with your arms and I think it's awesome that you can work em out so you can lift even heavier things and make them look neat and I just wondered what it was like." She blushed before looking back down at the table.

"Y-You think my arms are... neat?" Bowser looked at his hands, then at each of his biceps then back at Starlow. She looked up at him and chuckled which earned a small smile from him.

"Well, it's a pretty awesome experience," he began, "with how you can grab stuff and punch stuff and work em out like you said. Since I'm so used to it, I use them without even having to think about it, sorta like blinking. And sometimes, if you think about it too much, they feel like weird bendy poles with spikes on the end," he wiggled his fingers for emphasis. "But I feel like my arms have a deeper meaning."

"Oh?" Starlow leaned in, intrigued.

"Yeah, I feel like my arms are a metaphor for my will. Like the more powerful they are, the more I can do," he looked at his hands and made fists. "But yeah, it's pretty cool."

Starlow was taken aback yet again by Bowser's words. Her presence was beginning to unravel more and more complexities about his perspective on life. She was hooked into his words like a good book, literary attention that would be better spent (in their current situation) on studying magic books. Bowser glanced over at Starlow to be met with her gaze of amazement.

"Chippy?"

"Bowser that sounds fantastic."

"What, my explaining? I was just rambling on about… arms."

"You made having arms sound like some cool adventure! You should write stories, you're good with your words."

"If I hate reading books, why would I write em? That's like self destruct!"

She chuckled again. "C'mon, let's quit messing around and check these books. They're not exactly pamphlets."

"Ready when you are, Miss Triceps." He opened the book with the three arrows on the cover. She nudged open the star-bearing book and looked at the contents. The book appeared to be an encyclopedia about the different kinds of stars present in the world.

She looked up from her book at Bowser. "This book is all about stars it seems."

Bowser kept scanning the pages of the green text. "Does it say anything about energy?"

"Hmm, I'll keep looking." She nudged each page searching for anything about star power. She saw pages with headers about Green Stars, Red Stars, Starmen and Crystal Stars. She stopped at a page about Power Stars after seeing the word 'energy' on it a few times.

"I think I found something! Okay, it says 'The energy contained within a Power Star is not completely understood but is often sought after for its near indefinite emission. Energy extracted from a Power Star can be used to alter most forms of matter or create almost unbreakable physical bonds.' Interesting," she finished.

"That was about Power Stars. Aren't you a Star Sprite?"

"Yes, but we contain similar energies as a Power Star, though they're not as powerful as those from a Star itself," she explained.

"Oh alright then. Does it say how to stop the energies from doing whatever they're doing?"

"Uhh," she skimmed the following pages some more. "I'm not seeing anything about stopping it, unfortunately. I guess star power is meant to last when you use it."

"Dang it, I thought we had something."

"Peach was in the machine longer than I was, so I'm pretty sure most of this tether is made of her wish power. Whatever you got of my star power just mixed with it and probably made it a bit stronger."

"Hmm," he made a thinking face. "So this thing is using you like a battery to keep itself strong?"

"Probably so."

"Batteries gotta run out sometime. Do you ever stop making star power?"

"Yeah, I only need to die and it's all gone," she said sarcastically.

Bowser looked back at his book. "...There's probably another way."

Starlow closed the book and set it aside with a small kick. She slid the pink book over to her side of the table and nudged it open. Fortunately enough, through what she gathered from the contents, the book was about wish power.

"We scored with this one, Bowser! It's all about wish power!"

He did a fist pump. "Nice, we'll be separated in no time!"

Starlow's smile faded a bit. "Yeah, no time at all."

She hadn't given much thought to how she'd feel about being separate from him again. Did she want for their magical bond to be broken? Sure, no two people can stay in close proximity of each other forever without going insane, and Starlow did not want that by any means, but say their proposed solution doesn't work and they remain bound to each other indefinitely. In that situation, she wouldn't exactly mind being stuck with Bowser. By simply providing her presence, she'd discovered so many things about his personality already and she didn't want to stop. Now, she wasn't going to act upon this matter without any say from him because he was the other half to their situation, and since, she presumed, he'd like to be apart again, she'd have to think of ways that she could keep sticking around to hear the rest of the complex mystery that is his personality. She kept pondering about the hypothetical as she glazed over her book.

Bowser had long determined his book to be unhelpful in the situation, but found its contents too interesting to discard it. The novel read of transformations of creatures possessing various energy forms. He'd learned how different types of energy can change different creatures in different ways, and how certain combinations of creatures and energy types alter DNA. Biology wasn't exactly Bowser's cup of tea, but his interest peaked after reading about star energy and what it could be used for within an entity possessing it. The chapter read on and on about the specifics of star energy's effect on DNA but he skimmed it until he found a list of incantations to be used when energy users weren't familiar with controlling their power. One incantation caught his eye: reciting it granted a star energy user the ability to shapeshift at will. It was obvious who he had this ability in mind for: his companion across the table, deep into her reading. He recalled that she could already change her shape when she turned into a guide for one of the Mario Bros. attacks back in the battle on the top of Peach's Castle weeks ago, but assumed that she couldn't take on more complex forms, such as a different body, or else she would have done so already. Bowser remembered what Starlow had said about how cool it would be to have arms, so he figured that she thought having a whole body would feel even cooler. He planned to present the ability as a surprise to her. It was the least he could do after she complimented his use of wording while describing the experience of having arms. It takes a pure heart to admire someone who outperforms you somehow, and he secretly admired that about her.

 _With this one spell,_ he thought, _she can have a whole dang body. I just gotta get her to say it and presto._

He flipped to the back of the book and found a blank page. He was about to write the incantation on the page but fell short on the lack of a writing utensil. He looked on the table, underneath the table and all around the floor for a marker or a pen or even a super short, chewed up pencil. He fell back in his chair in defeat when he got an idea. Bowser looked over at Starlow to see she was lost in thought. He held out his claw and tried as best he could to breathe fire onto it without her noticing. He shaped his lips as if he were whistling and out came a thin stream of flames. Glancing back up at her and seeing that she had yet to notice, Bowser quickly put his claw into the flames and held it there for a few seconds before taking it out and stopping the fire. He tapped his now hot claw on the page and it made a small black burn mark. Using his finger like a stylus, he burned the incantation onto the page before his claw became too cold. When he finished, he sped up the cooling of his finger by waving it around in the air, drawing the attention of a now aware Starlow. She looked at his finger, then at his eyes and he gave her a guilty grin.

"Whatcha doin?"

"Oh, I was just, uh…" He forced a cough and covered his mouth. "Didja find anything in there?" He pointed at the pink book.

"Uhh," she blushed once again. "There's a bunch of stuff in here about what wish power can do, but yet again, I didn't find anything about stopping it from doing what it does," she tried to convince him.

It didn't feel good to lie to him about it but it was probably for the better, she assumed. The book did actually explain the properties of wish power's interactions with creatures, but she'd rather not tell him of the method that can be taken to stop it. In her time skimming the pages for anything helpful, Starlow read that wish power is fueled by the strength of the user's desire. If two entities bound by this magical force of desire wish to free themselves from each other, they must express their own desire for each other to relieve the bond of its duty. She concluded that there was no way she could tell Bowser that they had to 'want each other' to set themselves free and have it happen. There was no guarantee that he'd emotionally follow through while consciously aware that he was being forced to do so, leaving Starlow to decide to take the solution into her own hands. She planned to get Bowser to emotionally warm up to her through step by step interactions. That way, after they are set free, he can better choose how he wants to feel about their relationship with each other free from any induced emotions. Starlow was happy with her plan and had a great deal of hope that it'll work, but the first step was convincing Bowser that she knew no better.

"Again? Man, that sucks. What's the point of writing a book about something if you're not gonna put everything you can into it? That's a lazy author!"

"I know, right?" She faked annoyance at the book's anonymous author. "So close to an answer, too!"

"It doesn't help that this book is useless, either," he slapped the back of his hand against the page he had written the incantation on. "It's a real kick in the pants."

"Do you wanna keep looking?"

Just then, Bowser's stomach growled, making them both look at his belly. He stood up and gestured toward the door. "How about we take a lunch break?"

"I'm down for that," she smiled.

She started toward the door but froze when she heard a quick rip. She turned around to see Bowser with a page ripped out of the book he was reading.

"Okay, what are you doing? And I want an answer this time."

He looked at the page then back at her. "Oh, this? I, uh... saw something bad scribbled in here about me and… I ripped it out so I can... go give Kamek a piece of my mind about it," he lied. "Some nerve he has…"

"Uh huh," she squinted her eyes at him. "Riiiight."

"So, uh…" he tried to change the subject. "Whaddya wanna eat for lunch?"

"Oh yeah. I guess I could have…"

He listened to her ramble on about her indecisiveness on a meal choice while he slowly tucked away the page with the incantation written on it. They made their way out of the library and down some more stairs, the both of them knowing something the other doesn't. They kept their mouths shut (aside from discussing what to eat) and made their way to the castle's kitchen.

* * *

Wowee this is a long one, took quite a while to write. If you have any questions or anything, feel free to pm me.

I'll fix up any formatting problems I see later.

More on its way soon, folks, have a nice day!


	4. Our Special Today Is

**4: Our Special Today Is...**

* * *

The duo had arrived in Bowser's large kitchen. It was larger than the library they had just came from, but not by much. The ceiling was higher and was thick with a maze of pipes and ducts protruding from the walls, some of which leading down to the room's appliances and others continuing along the ceiling. There was a long island in the center of the room bearing a marble counter with multiple stoves installed within. Two large sinks sat against the left wall, embedded in more onyx marble. In the far right corner loomed a lime colored, stainless steel refrigerator, adjacent to an extensive counter supported by many gray cabinets. More cabinets lined the spaces above the countertops and each sported a set of overhanging lights that had simultaneously illuminated the whole room.

Bowser raised his arms. "Welcome to Bowser Kitchen, unrenovated and not in control of Fawful circa two weeks ago!"

"You've got a surprisingly clean place around here, Bowser," Starlow noted as she studied the reflective tiles on the ground.

"I'm evil," he folded his arms, "not a slob. What, you thought there was gonna be trash everywhere? I thought I did a pretty good job dumping all of Fawful's junk."

"No, I didn't mean it like that! I just didn't expect such spotlessness to come out of a kitchen that was, until just recently, pumping out so many fattening dishes," she explained as she examined the stoves. "Grease stains don't exactly come out that easy."

Bowser's face became slightly disgusted. "I put on so much weight eating all that buttery, sugary, high calorie crud."

It was Starlow's turn to look sickened. "I was INSIDE the weight from all that buttery, sugary, high calorie crud." They both shuddered.

He looked at Starlow sternly."Never again."

She returned the stare. "Nope."

He paused for a second before frowning at her.

"I remember you being a real jerk about helping me out while I was fattened up, too."

She looked down. "Yeah… sorry about that. You should really watch your tone, though."

He folded his arms. "Yeah because the last thing I should do when I become so obese that I get stuck in my floor is panic. Got it."

"That's not what I meant, Bowser! You know that-" She sighed. "Forget it…"

His face became less serious again. "Whatcha wanna make? You didn't exactly gimme a straight answer."

"Oh, right!" she remembered. "Hmm… what to eat for lunch…"

On the topic of lunch, Bowser considered burying some peanut butter in the ground so he could have a nice, shiny diamond by the time Starlow made up her mind. His stomach growled again, snapping him out of his investment ideas.

"Man, another reason that I'd wanna have Peach around? She bakes a mean cake. It's moist and spongy and the frosting isn't too heavy either, and when she puts the strawberries next to the chocolate drizzle," he licked his lips as if he could taste said cake from memory, "man, don't get me started!"

Starlow's face brightened, rivaling the room's illumination.

"Bowser, let's make a cake!"

"Uhh, I dunno, Chippy. My specialty is kinda different from baking."

"What is your specialty?"

Bowser struck a powerful pose. "Shock and Awe!"

"I am both shocked and in awe," she joked.

"That's why it's my specialty," he grinned and she chuckled.

"But be honest," she got back to her offer, "since when has how well you do something stopped you from doing it?"

She made a fair point, Bowser thought. His confidence in his success has always driven him to keep trying. He hasn't stopped trying to pull off the perfect Peach-napping, and by gosh he wasn't about to let some pastry stand in his way of not starving to death… not that it was doing that in any way as he could easily find something else to eat… you get it.

"Hey, you're right! Confectionaries beware," he resumed his powerful pose, "King Bowser has arrived in the kitchen so prepare to meet your maker!"

Starlow burst into a fit of giggling at the koopa's defiance toward cake. He looked at her with a small scowl.

"What's so funny?"

"Hee hee hee hee! It's nothing!"

"No tell me, I wanna know!" he commanded, wondering what universal force had caused such a discrepancy.

"Well, I think that how you oppose the universe is just adorable!" she managed to get out between breaths.

Bowser almost flipped. "Adorable?! How can the almighty Koopa King himself be remotely considered adorable in any way, shape or form?!"

"You just look so silly sometimes and it's just the cutest thing I've ever seen!" she exclaimed, getting quite the kick out of his insecurity.

He nearly fainted at this.

"Oh, jeez, you think I'm cute now?! Man, just when you think your day's going bad…"

Starlow finally settled down and was returning to her normal breathing rate.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Bowser," she started.

"How could I not? Cute and adorable are the opposite of what I'm going for here!" he grimaced at the words.

"But the fact that such a no-nonsense, brute force kinda guy can be so playful inside is golden," she continued. "It makes for quite the interesting character."

"Huh? Interesting?"

"Yeah, like a big evil colorful painting of emotion!"

Part of Starlow's plan to get Bowser to warm up to her was to tell him things he probably didn't hear on a daily basis. Her opinion, being a new perspective, would allow him to reflect on how he makes her feel, she presumed.

"Uh, right." He scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "Well, y'know me…"

His face went blank then turned into a small scowl again.

"Hey! Are we making cake or not?"

She beamed at him. "That's what I told ya!"

"Then let's get to work! Operation... B.A.T.T.E.R.E.D. is a go!"

"Operation B.A.T.T.E.R.E.D.? What's it stand for?"

He scanned the ceiling as if a clever acronym hid itself among the pipes, but he instead found a more clever one in his head.

"Uh… it stands for… Becoming Allies' Time Together Entails Really Exquisite Dessert," he said in a mouthful.

"You just came up with that? Nice!" she praised. " I guess we are allies again, huh?"

"That's just the way it's gonna be for now," he gave her a small smile. "What do we need?"

"Eggs, milk, butter, flour," she listed. "Cake stuff, y'know? Have you ever make a cake before?"

He thought about it. "No actually. If I want some I just have someone make it for me."

"Wow, this is your first time making a cake! I'll teach you how, step by step!"

"Lemme try this on my own, Chippy."

She raised an imaginary eyebrow. "I thought baking wasn't exactly your thing."

"I'm more confident in myself now. Plus, you don't learn by not trying, right?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Bowser," she warned.

"C'mon, Chippy, how bad could this go?"

 **-10 minutes later-**

"Probably about this bad," she looked around the room.

A thick cloud of smoke blanketed the ceiling of the kitchen as it erupted from the smoldering oven. Charred remains scattered themselves across the floor and the oven door. A green clad Shy Guy sprayed foamy asphyxiant into the oven to stop the burning. He put the fire extinguisher down and wiped his mask.

"I think the fire is completely out now."

A blue hatted Goomba walked over from the trash can.

"All the ash has been trashed, Lord Bowser."

A Parakoopa sporting a red bucket on his head flew down from above the smoke layer.

"I opened the vents to clear the smoke out, Your Crispiness."

Bowser, coated in a layer of soot, wiped what he could from his eyes and nostrils.

"Private Goomp, Sergeant Guy, Corporal Paraplonk," he coughed out some dust, "good work with the… accident."

"Thank you, Lord Bowser!" they said simultaneously.

"Will you be needing anything else, sir?" offered Sergeant Guy.

"No, thanks. Return to your posts."

"Yes, sir!" they chimed as they headed for the exit. Private Goomp was the last to the exit, but turned to face a gray stained Starlow before leaving.

"Enjoy your stay at Bowser Castle, Miss Starlow!" he said before running after his unit.

She smiled at the door he left from, then turned to face Bowser. She shook off what she could of the soot.

"What did we learn?"

He closed his eyes and let his arms hang in shame.

"Accept help when you're offered it."

"Good. What else?"

"When you say something's a bad idea, it probably is," he continued.

"Yup. And?"

"Don't bake a cake at 1000 degrees."

"Ok. Are you ready to take it step by step?"

"Jeez, I sound like such a pushover," he straightened his posture. "Yeah, I guess."

"Alrighty then. Get out a clean bowl, to start off."

He dug around the cabinets until he pulled out a medium sized mixing bowl. He brushed the already used equipment further down the counter and placed the bowl on it.

"Ok, Next!"

"Put in about 2 cups of flour, a cup and a half of sugar, a cup of milk, 2 eggs, one and a half teaspoons of baking powder," she listed in quick succession.

Bowser just stared at her with a blank expression.

"... and a teaspoon of salt," she finished.

He nodded and went off to gather the ingredients. Luckily, some of them were already out from his previous… attempt. He grabbed the measuring cups and shook off whatever was on them to be used again. He scooped in all the dry ingredients first and mixed them into a fine powder. He then cracked two eggs into the bowl and eyeballed the cup of milk, to which Starlow rolled her eyes. Utilizing a wooden spoon, he went to work thoroughly mixing the batter.

"Once that's all good and mixed, pour it into a decently sized pan," she instructed.

He looked at her, down at the batter he was mixing and back at her.

"Can ya find me a pan to put this in?" he requested.

Starlow smirked at him. "What's the magic word?"

Bowser deadpanned. " Fawful."

"Bleh, no way!" She stuck out her tongue. "Try again."

"Aw c'mon, Chippy, not again."

She remained silent. Bowser's expression became one of defeat.

"...Please?"

She smiled again. "That's better!"

"Did I really just say that again?" He shuddered. He refocused on the task at hand.

"Y'know, I thought you could just bake it in the bowl you mixed it in," he admitted in reference to his earlier mistake.

"Then why do you think the cakes are always flat?"

"Huh. Good point."

She flew into the adjacent cabinet using her natural glow as a light source. She found what appeared to be a star shaped baking pan and picked it up with her feet.

"Why do you have this?" she asked as she brought the pan into his view.

"I don't remember where I got that from, but who cares, all the batter can fit into it."

He poured all of the thick fluid into the pan and shook it around to level it.

"Hey, this is lookin' pretty good! What next?"

"Put it in a DIFFERENT oven at 350 degrees."

"Different oven, got it, sheesh."

After sliding the pan into the oven, he turned some knobs on the control panel of the oven. He was about to set a time, but didn't have one in mind.

"How long does it have to stay in here for?"

"Give it half an hour and it should be fine."

He set the timer and and stood back from the oven. He crossed his arms and leaned on the counter as he took a second to relax.

"Making cake is a bit harder than I thought," he admitted, " but nothing I can't handle."

"Yeah, you remember the ingredients and the temperature over time so it'll come naturally later on."

They stared at each other, observing their qualities once more. Starlow looked at his hair again, stained with streaks of soot from the disaster earlier. She thought the gray lines looked complimentary mixed with the orange, similar to a fire producing smoke. She ran her gaze down along his body and stopped at his arms, the same powerful, amazing arms she admired back in the library. She came to realize a strange desire she had for his arms. Not like she wanted to have them, but like she wanted them to have her. They looked so strong, so safe, so protective, like they could stop anything in the world from getting to her. She had a strong urge to just jump into them and not worry about anything anymore because she knew his biceps wouldn't fail. 'In due time,' she thought, 'It'll come in due time," and put the thought into the back of her mind.

Bowser familiarized his gaze with her floating star. It was covered in a thin coating of soot from earlier but what he noticed about it really made him think. Its pulsating glow shone through the dust like sunshine through a cloud layer. 'No matter what gets thrown at her,' he thought, 'she keeps shining on.' He found irony in the fact that such a small creature could have so much confidence in herself and that was one of his favorite things about her. An intense, burning passion within a delicate being was a spectacle for him to behold. A tiny part of his mind suggested that he… protected this delicate creature. The rest of his mind tried to rule out the absurdity but, like Starlow, it shone through. Bowser concluded, with consideration from his ego, that, in a hypothetical situation where they are determined inseparable, he wouldn't mind too much as it would give him more time to admire the spirit of his companion and, potentially, offer himself as a kind of… defense from anything that might harm the bearer of such a soul. Of course, he wouldn't let her know what was on his mind about her, he still had his legacy to maintain after all. The argument in his head was resolved with these thoughts and his eyes were allowed to move down to her own.

They stared into each other's eyes for a good 30 seconds. Starlow smiled at him after thinking back to the back of her mind momentarily. Bowser returned her smile albeit smaller, yet meaningful all the same. With their respective analyses in mind, it didn't feel awkward for them to look at each other, as if they could see into the opposite mind and not care what was there. It was like an unspoken yet mutual bond of companionship. Suddenly, the magical bond between them started to glow, breaking them both out of their trance. Bowser broke the silence first.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"Not sure, exactly," Starlow replied with her eyes glued to the rope.

The tether appeared to increase its length a decent amount with more of itself forming from its center.

"It's making more slack!" he observed.

"That's interesting…"

The tether's shades of orange and yellow then began to fade into transparency by a small amount. It stopped after the gloss of the floor tiles could be barely made out through it.

Starlow gasped. "You think it's getting weaker?"

"Probably, but it stopped!" Bowser looked at it become invisible again. "Whaddya think could've caused it?"

Starlow knew exactly what was happening and it gave her a hopeful feeling inside. Her most recent desires regarding her partner activated the weakening of the bond, but only partly, which means that Bowser would've had to have felt the same way as well. Her plan was working exactly as she anticipated. At the rate things were going, they'd be free in no time, which means that she and Bowser would theoretically be the best of friends.

"Not a clue," she fibbed, "I mean all we did was sit there."

"Maybe we just have to be still for it to go away?"

"Eh, we were still before, I don't think that's it."

"We can figure it out after we have cake," he suggested, gesturing to the timer reading 15 minutes.

"Alrighty then. Did you wanna decorate it?"

"Decorating isn't evil…" he crossed his arms.

"But it'll make it taste better! It's called garnishing!"

"Garnishing?" he retorted.

"Yeah, it's basically edible decorations!"

"What, like candy canes on a tree?"

"Bingo!"

"Hmm… alright. Let's frost it and put strawberries on it. They were pretty good on the cake Peach made for me."

"Do you know how to make frosting?"

"...Can I get the rundown?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Please?"

She smiled at him again. "You wanna start with another clean bowl."

* * *

After gathering the butter, sugar and milk and adding the specified amounts of each to the bowl, Bowser got to work whisking them together.

"I should bake more often," he said over his shoulder, "my arms are getting a workout from all this!"

"It's not nearly enough exercise to balance out the second half of baking," she stated.

"And what's that?"

"Eating what you've made."

"I've worked off more than one measly cake before, all in a couple of seconds!"

"You must have the best workout routine; you burn off hundreds of pounds by literally igniting yourself, then you let adrenaline take care of the rest of it by blasting yourself miles away," she joked.

"That'd be one crazy workout video, though," he mused.

She chuckled before looking at the timer again.

"5 minutes left, Bowser," she announced.

"Nice, and the frosting is getting all creamy, too."

"Oh yeah, don't mix it too much or it'll get too thick. You're good with what you have there."

He set the bowl down on the counter and pulled out the whisk. He ran his tongue across one of the wires swiftly.

"It's pretty good, Chippy, try some," he offered as he swung the whisk toward her, sending a big glob of frosting flying at her face. She froze and let the excess slide down from her face to the floor, landing with a plop. Bowser froze and watched Starlow with wide eyes for any response. She spat out some of the sweet mixture to clear her mouth.

"...Oops."

"Bowser," she started calmly.

'Oh no, here it comes,' he mentally prepared himself for a long, drawn out scolding.

"I'm glad you think I'm sweet, but the cake is still in the oven." She grinned at him. Bowser became flustered.

"I do not!"

Starlow was enjoying an embarrassed koopa king, so she played into it. She shook herself clean of what frosting she could.

"Then why, dear Bowser, did you pick me as your target?"

"I didn't pick you, it was an accident!"

"Oh sure, just an accident, huh?"

"Yes! What else would that be, a declaration of war?"

"You sure you weren't trying to…" she held in a laugh and retained her calm composure, "tell me something?"

Bowser's face blanked. "What?"

"Is there something you want to say to me, Bowser?"

What could she be getting at, he wondered, and why? All he did was flick some frosting at her and she was reading way too into it. Unless she somehow… found out what he was thinking about her earlier. Maybe that was what she was talking about, but if so, it didn't add up.

'Could it be? But that's impossible, I was THINKING it,' he argued with himself. 'Does this connection we have… share our thoughts?!'

He panicked internally as he ran out of options, and eventually settled on disagreeing with whatever she said.

"N-no. Not at all."

"Are you sure?" she fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"P-p-positive." he assured her. 'Please gimme something, anything to get this woman off my back!' he mentally begged the universe. 'Wait, am I begging? Oh gross!'

Luck was on Bowser's side as, just when Starlow was about to say something else, the oven's timer went off. His face lit up at the sound.

"Cake's done!" he shouted as he ran to the oven to remove it.

"Bowser wait!" she yelled as she saw him reach into the oven with bare hands. She shut her eyes tightly, expecting to feel a nasty burn, but nothing came.

He carefully pulled out the cake, now decently risen, placed it on the stove and shut the oven. He turned to look at her.

"What?"

She stared in slight disbelief. "Did you not get burned from the 350 degree oven?!"

He decided to give her a taste of her own medicine.

"I'm glad you think I'm cool, but this koopa packs the heat," he pointed to himself.

"No really," she persisted, "why did you not get burned?"

"Chippy, I can breathe fire. Dontcha think I'd be at least a little bit heatproof? It doesn't hurt me," he explained with disappointment that his plan to get her flustered didn't work.

"Oh. I guess that makes sense," she said as she briefly thought about the physics behind it.

"Anyways, what was that all about?"

She looked back up at him. " What was what all about?"

"With the questions just a second ago!"

"Oh that? I was just messing with you! Hee hee hee!"

"You what?" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"You looked so confused, Bowser! I was having a hard time holding in my laughter!"

Bowser was relieved that she didn't actually suspect him of thinking about her the way he did. In reality, she actually did, but not through the same manner he was thinking about.

"So it was payback for the frosting?"

"Yup. It was delicious, by the way. Good job!"

"Um… thanks."

"If you wanna put some color into it, you can. It makes the cake stand out a bit more."

"Ok then, I'll make it yellow," he decided as he opened a cabinet to look for food coloring.

"Yellow, huh?" she questioned his choice.

"Yeah, orange is my favorite color, but yellow suits a star better."

"Oh really now?" she said as she made an I-know-what-you-mean face.

He pointed at her with the yellow dye in his hand. "Don't start."

She started laughing again.

"Where would you be without me to be the butt of all your jokes?" He watched her make fun of him with a serious look. "How much of this do I add before the frosting can replace the sun?"

"Oh boy," she said, calming down. "3 drops should do."

"Well, Chippy," he started as he mixed the frosting, "you seem like you're having the time of your life being stuck to to most evil person in the kingdom right now."

"It's good to have fun in a weird situation when you can."

"Yeah but with the worst person in the kingdom?"

"Trust me, Bowser, you're not that bad."

"Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?"

"Whatever makes you feel better," she smirked. "When you're ready, get out that long butterknife thing with the rounded end. That's what you use to frost stuff."

"Whatever makes me feel better…" he repeated as he looked for the spatula. "So you didn't mean it either sorta way?"

She looked at him in silence as he looked in the drawers for the tool.

"Or you meant it in the disrespectful kinda way and you just didn't wanna say it!"

He raised an eyebrow over his shoulder at her then went back to searching for the spatula.

"Oh! You probably literally meant whatever makes me feel better!" he concluded as he pointed at her with the newly acquired tool. "So, thanks, I guess."

"Since when did you start analyzing things like that?

He grabbed a large plate from the cabinet. "Since some creep in the forest gave me a weird mushroom."

He took the pan from the stove, turned it upside down above the plate and watched the cake slide out and onto the plate without crumbling.

"Let's finish this," he said as he dipped the spatula into the frosting.

-Minutes later-

"Finished!" He put the spatula back into the bowl now with little frosting left in it.

"That's a smooth coat of frosting right there. Looks professional!" she pointed out.

"You did a good job with the strawberries, too," he complimented.

The strawberries, halved courtesy of Bowser, were arranged neatly in a border along the edge of the cake and ran into dollops of frosting on each convex point of the star. She put two un-halved strawberries in the center of the cake where eyes would be on a power star. He grabbed himself a fork from the drawer.

"Dig in, Chippy!"

Star Sprites didn't necessarily have to eat to survive, and Starlow was no exception, but she still enjoyed the occasional partaking of food because she liked experiencing the flavors. She didn't really know how to do it without making a mess since she hadn't done it frequently enough, so she looked at the cake awkwardly as she saw Bowser use the fork to cut himself a piece off of one of the star's points. He stabbed the piece and brought it to his face, but stopped it from entering his mouth once he saw Starlow's discomfort.

"Oh," he brought the fork away from his mouth, "right."

"Yeah, I can't really have any without shoving my whole face into it, y'know? Just part of being a-" She turned to him. "Oh?"

Bowser was holding the fork-bound piece of cake out to her.

"Here. You can have this bit," he offered. "Just eat it off the fork, I'll hold it."

Starlow couldn't help but smile at his kind gesture. "Thank you, Bowser."

She took a bite of the slice while he looked at her eagerly for an opinion about how it tasted. She chewed it carefully, ensuring that she could correctly analyze the flavor, then swallowed it. Bowser perked up on seeing her open her mouth but frowned after realizing she just went to finish the bite. She chewed and finished it faster this time, then looked up at Bowser.

"Well, how's it taste?" he questioned, putting the fork down.

"Bowser," she began dramatically once more, "that was a pretty great slice of cake. Nicely done!"

"BWAHAHAHAHA! I'm pretty good at this, I see," he made a fist in the air, "maybe I should become the best!"

"It wouldn't hurt to practice more. I tasted some smokiness in there, but aside from that the flavor was good."

He cut another piece for himself and ate it, getting a sense of how well he had done.

"Yup, there's the smoke. Maybe it was just the air quality or something," He tasted around some more. "I like it! It kinda adds a savory flavor to it."

"Umami," she offered a synonym.

"Whose mommy?" he misunderstood.

"Nevermind. After you have your fill, do you wanna go back to the books to look for a solution?"

"Do you feel like looking again?" he asked, already on his 3rd slice.

"Honestly, I don't," she said truthfully.

"Alrighty then, I have an idea of what we can do."

"What's your idea?"

"It'll be a surprise," he smirked.

"Can't wait to see what it is!"

"You won't really have to, this cake isn't gonna last much longer," he gestured to the shrunken mass of what was once a bountiful desert. "You want anymore?"

"No thanks, I don't eat food all the time, but I'm glad one of the few instances I do was that cake."

"You were giving me meal suggestions a while ago like you eat all the time, what gives?"

"I was just thinking of some foods I could try out. Most of the stuff I listed I've never tasted before," she explained.

"So you don't get hungry all the time?" he asked, mouth covered in frosting and crumbs.

"I don't get hungry at all!"

"Huh. Well, if you don't need to eat for your energy, where do you get it from?"

"Good question. I'm not too familiar with all the details, but I'll tell you what I know."

As Bowser devoured what remained of the cake, he listened intently to Starlow's explanation of her mysterious energy source. Their relationship was ironic: the weaker their magical connection became, the stronger their emotional one grew. Starlow hoped for one of two things to happen to it: either Bowser not putting two and two together and realizing what was required to be free and avoiding disrupting the natural pace of growth she was working toward, or realizing what had to be done but deciding to take the natural method of warming up to her as well. She couldn't read his thoughts, but she knew that he was far from unintelligent and could possibly even figure out that she was lying to him about a solution. All the evidence he needed was there right when the rope weakened itself. She concluded that she'd let time take the wheel for a bit and simply see what happens as she spends more of it with the Koopa she keeps learning new things about.

* * *

Sorry this one took so long, I actually had it written months ago but never submitted for various reasons, but it's here now! Feel free to PM me about any questions or spelling mistakes if I haven't already fixed them. Have a good one, folks!


	5. S(tar)low and Steady

**5: S(tar)low and Steady**

* * *

Bowser and Starlow left the kitchen after disposing of the dirty dishes and headed back to Bowser's room where he revealed to her what his surprise activity was. She was admittedly nervous from a lack of experience but he assured her she was performing adequately.

"So… uh… this goes here..?"

"Almost, move it over a bit more."

 _swish_

"Ok, then what?"

"Well, you can slide this up a little further."

 _smack_

"That's one way to do it…"

 _moan_

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what I'm doing at all."

"That's fine, Chippy. We can keep practicing until you're more confident."

"Y'know, Bowser," she looked up at him, "I wouldn't have ever guessed that you owned a chessboard."

They sat opposite each other on Bowser's bed with a gold and copper colored chess board between them. The pieces were wooden, Bowser's pieces having copper bands near the bases while Starlow's having golden ones.

"You're one of few people who has actually wanted to play it with me as of late," he admitted.

"Why's that?"

"Not to brag but," he smirked, "I always win."

"Oh, I see. Nobody wants to play against you because they know that you'll most likely beat them."

"Bingo."

"But so what? It's still a game, have some fun with it!"

"The troops don't see it that way. My forces haven't always been the most… successful. They're probably pretty tired of losing battles to those holiday ornaments over and over and I guess even losing to me in a game of chess would make em feel like they let me down again," he trailed off.

"...Oh. I see," she understood his perspective.

"But that's why I play chess. I like to strategize my approach in a battle. You have to get into your enemy's head a little."

"Do you feel like your success in chess is _*ahem*_ reflected in battle?"

"Uh, well," he picked up a bishop and examined it. "In theory, it should be. But theory only works so well in the field…"

"Life is unpredictable sometimes, y'know?"

"I hear that, just look at our current situation!"

"You gotta keep pushing on, though. The first step to being defeated is accepting that you might be."

"Hmm," he mused. "How 'bout that."

"Hey, Bowser?"

He looked back at her curiously. "What?"

"Can we talk?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that not what we're doing right now?"

"No, I mean talk about… you."

Starlow was indeed ready to read more of the story that is Bowser's life. She assumed that by the time they become separated, _if_ they become separated, that she would've figured out every interesting detail of his existence.

"What about me?"

"I just wanted to... get to know you a little better."

"I thought you knew me inside and out! You're basically the president of the Bowser Fan Club right now!"

"Sure, I know a lot about you, but I don't know everything. I was just wondering if I could fill in the gaps."

"Ah, so you can finally complete your Encyclopedia Bow-tannica," he chuckled. "Alrighty, what do you wanna know?"

"I have a bunch of questions, actually."

"Oh! I have a great idea!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"For every piece of mine you take, you can ask me a question! For every one of yours I take, I get to ask you a question! Sound good?"

"You have questions to ask me, too?"

"I barely know anything about the person I could very well be stuck to forever," he shrugged. "Maybe it's time to get familiar."

"Forever…" she pondered about the concept of being stuck with him indefinitely again. "Fair enough, but I won't get to ask you anything then!" she joked.

"Hah! Don't worry, I'll go easy on you. You remember how each piece moves, right?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Ok, let's get started. You move first."

Starlow kicked a pawn 2 spaces forward. She looked at Bowser to confirm that the move was valid and he nodded. He repeated her action. A few minutes of strategizing and piece kicking went by until one of his bishops took her first moved pawn.

"That's one for me."

"Ok, what's your question?"

He thought for a second. "How do you feel about our current situation?"

Starlow had to choose her words carefully. What she says can allow him to determine how she really felt about his company or it can give him the wrong signals as well. Hopeful? No, he'd know that she'd want to stick around to see the end. Bleak? Nah, if he thought she wasn't enjoying his company, him thinking that would only make it harder to open him up. She'd have to avoid giving too many clues.

"Uh, well it sure is an odd situation, but I feel like I could learn something new from it."

"Hmm," he tried to understand what exactly that meant. "Alright. Let's keep going."

With what she assumed to be a stroke of luck, one of her rooks captured a stray pawn.

"Oh, cool, I got one! Alright, question time!"

Bowser sat back on one arm. "Shoot."

"What's it like to breathe fire?"

"Oh that's a good one. Ok, have you ever had spicy food?"

"Nope. Not a big eater, remember?"

"Right, right. Hmmm," he tried to think of a good analogy. "Alright so imagine a weird warm feeling in your…" he looked her body over, "chest. Except it's 10 times as warm but the same amount of fuzzy. Actually, it's kind of a tingly fuzzy."

"Warm and fuzzy? Oh, like when you like someone!"

"...Yeah," he squinted his eyes at her.

"That's such a great feeling sometimes. Have you ever felt it?"

"When I breathe fire, I do."

"No, I mean the 10 times less warm but tingly and equally as fuzzy warm and fuzzy."

He crossed his arms. " _That_ answer is gonna cost you a piece."

Starlow plopped down on the bed. "Aww man, that'll take forever!"

Bowser looked at his downtrodden companion, then at the chessboard and finally shut his eyes. Yes, he was in the mood for a little game of chess, but not when his opponent wasn't fully invested in the game. Starlow was likely only playing to get answers to her multitude of questions, he assumed, but he couldn't blame her as he had his own questions too, and without a doubt he'd like an answer when he asks for one. It'd be a win-win if they could simply ditch the wait between turns.

"Hey, Chippy…"

She looked up at him with previously upset eyes. "Hmm?"

"We can ask each other stuff without needing to play, if you want."

"No, no, the game is fine!" she reassured. " We can definitely keep playing for answers!"

He opened his eyes, understanding of his correct assumption. "It's cool, Chippy. I know how much you wanna ask me stuff and you shouldn't have to do something you're not too good at to do it."

She put on a bright smile. "Bowser, you're so sweet."

He grinned a little at her emotion, then frowned after processing what he had been called. "I wish I could take that as a compliment a bit better."

"So? What about it?" she resumed her emotional interrogation.

"Repeat the question? Something about heartburn?"

"Have you ever liked someone?"

"Uhh," he thought around for an answer. Not only did he not feel entirely comfortable talking about his romantic life, he didn't really have too many crushes to begin with. 'Oh boy, someone I like?' he rooted around his thoughts. 'Huh. Not a lot to work with here. What about Peach? Wait no, I already went over this. Uhh…'

"Bowser?" Starlow looked into his blank expression.

"Uh-huh?" he snapped out of his daze. "Oh right. About that…"

"Or rather, do you like anyone now?"

"...No?" he said with uncertainty.

"Is that a question?" she asked with doubt on her face.

"Y-yeah, cuz I'm asking my brain if I have a thing for somebody," he quickly assembled.

"You mean you don't know if you like anyone?" Bewilderment consumed her being and expression. "How is that even possible?"

"I dunno, maybe I don't pay attention to the signals," he deduced. "I'm usually too busy for things like love, so I probably ignored it for a while."

"Well, you look really busy right now," she quipped, "but honestly, all you have to do is think of someone that makes you feel warm and fuzzy, it's not that hard!"

"I know you're eager to learn about my love life, but what I'm eager to know about is why," he retorted.

"It's always fun to know who other people have crushes on! You can guess how the relationship might go and you can even make up a name for the couple!"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Are all females this… giddy about other people's business?"

"I need an answer, you have a minute before I start guessing," she threatened in a sing-song voice.

He frowned at her then closed his eyes to be with his thoughts.

'She's a testy little thing… Anyways, someone I like. Well, who have I felt all warm inside for? Jeez, when's the last time I felt like that even? Hold on... I remember feeling like that a little,' he thought back. 'Back when… my machine blew up. Yeah, right before it exploded, I got shocked and it left me with a pretty warm and decently tingly feeling inside,' he reminisced. 'Oh right, a person I feel that way about. Well, when I got zapped, I was with… Chippy."

He opened one eye to look at her being lost in her own thoughts as well. She must have lost track of time because Bowser had been given much longer than a minute to collect his thoughts.

'That can't be… no! We both got shocked and it fried my guts a little, so what? It doesn't mean anything!' he dismissed the thought. 'Ok, how about another warm and fuzzy feeling,' he tried. 'Well, I was feeling pretty warm back in the kitchen, when I was leaning against the oven. Oh, wait, the warmth has to come from inside I'm pretty sure… but I felt warm _inside_ anyways. And while I did that, I was... looking over at uh… Chippy. And she was looking over at me… and we were staring into each other's eyes,' he replayed in his mind like a movie. 'And then… oh goodness, was she blushing? Wait a minute, was _I_ blushing?!' he internally exclaimed.

Bowser couldn't believe what his mind was showing him. He and Starlow shared an emotional moment together and he didn't pick up on it until now. Previous mental conclusions entailed that he wouldn't mind her sticking around for a while, sure, but he hadn't even considered their relationship to be of any intensity above a simple, yet close friendship.

'I-I know I don't like her like that,' he tried to wrap his head around his... thoughts, 'she's at best a decent minion. But then why is my brain putting the pieces of this weird emotional puzzle together like that's how it is?'

He opened his eyes and looked at Starlow.

'...Even if I did like her like my brain insists I do, it'd never work out. She's a small star sprite, I'm a huge koopa. Her job is a hero helper, mine is an evil king. She's the embodiment of perseverance,' he looked down at the chessboard, 'and I'm some guy who can't even figure his own emotions out…'

Rather than deny the existence of a romantic interest in his companion, Bowser became stuck on how poorly that acting upon it would go. His normal heir of self confidence was replaced by one of self doubt, not because he felt he couldn't pursue a relationship, but because of the person he analyzed the relationship being with: Starlow. Now, Bowser cared about Starlow, maybe even enough to openly call her his friend, but, as absurd as it may seem, he cared about her too much to taint her good alignment with his evil influence. He thought back to when she told him that she enjoys helping people, and if he really cared about her, he wouldn't do anything to take that joy away from her. How would his influence potentially corrupt her happiness, though? Bowser didn't know, but he didn't want to find out, either. Yet he still had to find out what to tell his info-hungry companion.

'Maybe I went too far,' Starlow thought to herself.

She looked over at Bowser, who was in an obvious state of discomfort judging by his face.

'He's never had to deal with this kind of question, at least not as far as I know, so his mind must be all over the place right now! I have to stop this…'

After some thought, Starlow decided that it wasn't fair to create such an uncomfortable environment for Bowser, especially after he showed her something of his he holds dearly. If playing chess was his way of opening up, then her question was basically forced entry into his mind. Besides, how could she forget so soon what had happened in the kitchen? Their connection extended itself, meaning that both of them simultaneously expressed a strong, yet temporary desire for one another. She basically already knew the answer to her own question.

"Chippy."

"Bowser," they spoke in unison.

"Chippy, I feel like I-"

"Bowser, wait," she cut him off. "It was wrong to ask you such a personal question. Who you feel romantically about, if anyone, should be your business and yours only because not everyone is entirely comfortable with an on the spot interrogation like that, and I'm sorry," she apologized.

Bowser was dumbfounded by both her change in demeanor and how conveniently it came for him, saving him from having to talk anymore about his love life, despite him already coming to terms with giving his answer.

"Uh, it's alright, Chippy, but I was gonna tell you what was on my mind anyways," he explained.

"No, no, it's fine," she smiled. "I'd rather it'd be a secret still."

His questioning face became one of seriousness, followed up with a nod of confirmation.

"Now, if it's ok with you," she started, emphasizing her desire for his permission, "I'd like to keep learning how the game works."

He moved the chessboard back to the space between them. "I'd be happy to keep teaching you."

She looked at the pieces. "Should we start over?"

He gave her a small grin. "Actually, you were on to something here."

About an hour later, the number of pieces on the board had fallen to 4: they both had their kings, but Starlow had a rook and Bowser had a bishop. They were equally anxious about the state of the game so far, as it could quickly go either way. Starlow used her move to keep her king from his diagonal bishop, but left her exposed rook to be captured instead.

'Oh no,' she thought to herself, 'I'm all out of pieces. He's got me right where he wants me.'

Starlow tried her best to beat Bowser at his own game, not because of a particularly competitive spirit, but because she wanted to show him how much she cares about his interests. By winning the match, he'd see how seriously she'd been taking his advice, to the point where she'd made one of his interests her own. Starlow could bring the two of them closer without the use of awkward questions.

Bowser's moves at that point of the game comprised of following Starlow's king around the board with his two pieces, trying to catch her off guard somehow. He had to admit, though, she was a fast learner, reflected by her skillful evasion of his king. He had an idea in the back of his mind, though. While she was distancing herself from his pieces on the board, he moved his bishop to a spot in the corner, much to her confusion. After a cycle around the board, he'd figured she'd take the bait and head into the corner for an easy capture.

And she did. Maybe she was getting tired of the same strategy and taking risks seemed like a better idea. If this was the case, he'd feel the same and rather not have the game last longer than it already had, not that he didn't enjoy playing it for a long time, but because he didn't want to play against a broken record, meaning that he liked a change in playstyle every so often.

She backed herself into the corner of the board, where his bishop would be on a different diagonal plane. He placed his king diagonally from his bishop and effectively trapped Starlow's king in the corner. Starlow panicked a little.

'If I move to the right, the bishop will get me from the diagonal. What about if I go down? Wait, no, the king is right there. I have nowhere to go! What now?"

"Looks like I'm stuck here," she broke their concentrated silence first.

"It's a stalemate," he announced. He extended his hand to her. "Nicely done, Chippy- oh, right."

She put her foot in his hand, moved it up and down then gave him a reassuring smile. "Thank you, that was really fun!"

"That was pretty good for your first game, you should be proud of yourself."

"I learn from the best!" she winked at him.

"The best…" he echoed, staring off to space.

"I had a strategy for a second there but I got sloppy. The match would've lasted forever, though, if my plan hadn't changed."

"Changed…" Bowser repeated, still looking off into space. Why did that phrase sound so familiar? Was he forgetting something?

"Bowser, are you ok?" she worried, looking at his unfocused eyes.

He snapped back to the present. "Huh? Yeah, I'm alright. Whatcha wanna do now?"

Her eyes darted around his bedroom in wonder of their next activity.

"Can I, uh, look around your room?" she hesitated at her request, thinking of the possibility of her question being too personal.

"If you want, I guess," he said, getting off of the bed.

He pushed his arms as high as they could reach to stretch out as many muscles as he could at once. Holding the position for about three seconds, he relaxed and relished in the tension leaving his body.

"Anything in particular you wanna know about?" he followed up.

"Oh let's see..." She floated off as far as their constraint would go to explore the various assets of his room, and he loosely followed her to give it more slack.

Bowser's bedroom hadn't changed much since Starlow's last visit to the castle, yet she didn't exactly get a good look around before he shooed her out of it, likely to enjoy his cake in peace. The area itself was comfortably lit with candles in a large, metal chandelier hanging over the center of the room. Her gaze ran down from the ceiling to the walls where numerous large banners draped themselves. Each banner had a design akin to a black morning star with Bowser's all too familiar symbol resting in the center in orange. She looked at each banner until the space between one was filled with a large bookshelf, where she took note of the shelves full of various equipment, knick knacks and…

"Books? I thought that reading wasn't really your thing," she mentioned.

"Well, I had to, uh, brush up on some stuff before drawing the designs for my machine," he explained, walking over to his desk.

His desk was covered in burnt and unburnt blueprint paper, broken and unbroken pencils, bent and straight rulers, various books and other materials he'd used to create the design for his now defunct contraption. She looked down at the floor next to the chair by the desk to find the trash can that she's seen once before, still filled to the brim with discarded blueprints.

"I see you were really busy with this one, I almost feel bad for messing it all up," she admitted. "Sorry again for that…"

"It's fine, Chippy, I already got over it," he calmly retorted. He took a seat at the desk and gazed out the large window straight ahead. The faint orange glow of the lava sea below illuminated the stone frame of the window. Starlow floated over to the window to look out at the horizon with him. She felt a slight warmth emanate from the window and it made her feel a little more at ease.

"I guess you don't have to worry about staying warm during the winter, huh?"

"The benefits of living over a lava sea will surprise you," he chuckled.

"Oh yeah? How so?"

"Well first off, it's always pretty toasty around here, so you're right about the heat," he started. "Second, you can dump your trash out the window and it'll just vaporize before it gets to the bottom."

"All the fun of littering without the environmental impact," she smiled.

"Maybe I can start a dumping service where everyone pays me to haul all their junk to the pit and dump it in," he thought aloud.

"Like you need the money," she pointed out. "Look at this place, it's huge!"

"Hey, if I go around and take people's trash for free, they'll think I'm some samaritan, and that's gonna conflict with my image. Besides, there's nothing more evil than business," he rubbed his hands together.

"Aside from decorating, of course," she added in.

"You're not funny," he side-eyed her, then resumed staring out the window. "Anyways, reason three of why it's great to be on a lava sea is that you don't get any random visitors."

"Nobody to sell you cookies? That's terrible!"

"If I want cookies, I'll steal some."

She rolled her eyes. "Typical Bowser. Everything is yours for the taking, huh?"

He frowned. "I can't exactly just waltz on into the supermarket to buy cookies, Chippy, everybody knows who I am and they're not gonna sell me anything."

"Pfft. When have someone else's rules ever stopped you?"

"...Good point. But it's not worth the commotion for cookies."

"Not the store bought ones anyway. Hey yeah, why buy cookies from the store when we could just make some?"

"You sure do know how to make a lot of sweets, Chippy. I swore to myself not to go back to that blubbery period of my life, but with the way it's looking, I'm gonna put on a few pounds around you," he chuckled. "But, uh, sure."

"Hmm?"

"We could make cookies someday, if you want to," he offered. He assumed, if he wanted to be the best at baking, or anything for that matter, he'd have to practice.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun, and you get to practice your baking skills some more," she agreed. He grinned at the fact that they're on the same thought track.

Starlow looked at Bowser, still staring out the window, but with his head in his hand, propped up in his arm. His state of tranquility brought a smile to her face. Her eyes moved to his hair once again, appearing to glow a little brighter in the orange light from the sea. The glow made it easier to see the streaks of soot he didn't get out after their kitchen incident.

"You still have some ash in your hair from the kitchen," she noted.

"Oh, really?" He looked up at his hair. "Argh, the stuff gets everywhere."

"Don't worry, I can get it out for you," she said, floating up to his head. She thought it'd be a nice thing to do to return the favor for a fun chess game.

"Oh," he was taken off guard. "Thanks, Chippy. I appreciate it."

Starlow softly landed in his bright, almost flaming hair and Bowser had tensed up slightly. She slowly began flying in a small, circular path in his hair in an attempt to brush the ash out with her body. She carefully went back and forth, switching up the direction periodically to get all she could of the soot out. The sifting feeling on his scalp was soothing and it had eased his brief tension. When she finished, she looked closely at his hair to make sure there wasn't any ash left. After checking, she spun around to shake off the ash she'd collected and sat down on his head.

"I got all of it out that I can see, but it'll help to go and wash your hair, too," she explained.

"Hmm, alrighty then, and thanks again."

"No problem, and uh, Bowser?"

"Huh?"

"Your hair is really soft," she started.

"Oh, um, thank you."

"And… can I just uh," she paused to contemplate the aptness of her odd question.

"Mhm?"

"Can I sit on your head for a bit?"

He thought about her question for a second. Was his hair that comfortable, to the point where she just wanted to be in it?

'Well, she did clean it out for me,' he thought, 'and what's the harm in her just sitting in it? She's already doing it.'

"...Sure," he replied.

"Thanks, there's a great view up here!"

He looked back out the window to see the sun setting over the tangerine skyline. The brightest stars had already started appearing over the darkening sky.

"Wow, it's already been a whole day?" Bowser shockingly admitted. "We've done so much today that I guess I didn't notice the time at any point."

Indeed, the duo's long adventure had introduced contentment to such a degree to the point where neither of them knew how much time had passed between their activities, and neither of them cared either.

"I guess I'm a little exhausted from our long day, but yes, it's been super eventful," she yawned.

"Hey, don't go falling asleep on my head," he warned.

"But it's so soft up here," she gave a fake whine.

"I'll take you off myself if I have to, Chippy."

"Ok, fine, you can take me off, but before you do, can I watch the sunset from up here? It's so pretty."

Bowser looked back out the window at the setting sun. The crimson skyline spread its light across the clouds as they ambled through the atmosphere.

"Yeah, we can."

"Thank you."

He folded his arms and continued to watch the world darken with her as she made herself more comfortable in his hair. Her eyelids felt heavier and heavier until she stopped fighting and let them close.

All she managed to get out was a quiet and sleepy "Goodnight, Bowser," before she drifted off to sleep.

As the last of the sun hid itself behind the horizon, Bowser let out a deep exhale as if he'd been holding a breath in until the sun set.

"Alright, Chippy, you can get off now," he reminded her.

He was answered with silence.

"Am I gonna have to take you off of there myself?"

More silence.

"Ok, you asked for it," he said, reaching up to his head. He paused before grabbing Starlow at an odd sound he heard in the quiet bedroom. It sounded almost like… wind. No wait, that's breathing. Breathing?

"Where's the breathing coming fro-," he said, covering his mouth at the realization of the fact that Starlow was fast asleep on his head. A new issue presented itself: don't wake her up. But why? What threat could possibly exist in the situation where Starlow was awakened?

...None, really, but that's not how Bowser perceived it. In his current mental state, he owed a lot to Starlow. She played chess with him, she taught him how to make cake, she cleaned the soot out of his hair and she was just really nice to him overall. It meant a lot to him when somebody of an opposing alignment showed friendship to him despite his previous intentions to literally destroy her. After all she'd done for him today, how could he possibly bring himself to wake her from her well deserved rest? He only told her not to fall asleep in his hair so he could find her a better place to reside, which he'd still do, but now with added difficulty.

"Oh jeez, how am I gonna get out of this one?" he whispered to himself before widening his eyes to an idea.

He slowly got up from his chair, stepped behind it, picked it up and moved it forward so setting it back down would place it in its pushed in position without the noise. He strode over to his bed and carefully peeled away the covers and got in with his head still supporting Starlow. He cautiously picked her up off of his head and placed her onto a pillow next to one he would be using on the opposite side of the bed. She didn't even stir, much the the relief of Bowser.

"Ok, that was tricky," he admitted to himself, still in a whisper.

He gazed down at the sleeping star sprite lying peacefully dormant on the pillow. Her body, in very small amounts, expanded and contracted with each breath she took. He took note of her small floating star again, where this time the frequency of its pulsations has decreased significantly to match her state of rest. Bowser didn't want to admit it to anybody else in the entire universe, but Starlow sleeping there looked kind of… cute. His face blanked and he then shook his head as if to alleviate the thought from it.

"First she calls me cute, then here I go using it myself. Maybe it rubs off or something," he quietly thought aloud.

He laid his head onto his pillow in thought of what he'd reflected on earlier.

"I said I didn't wanna influence her good aura with my evil, but the way it seems now, she's the one influencing me," he theorized. "Maybe the two of us being close friends won't be as far off as it seems if I keep changing like this."

Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Wait a minute. Change, change, change… the spell!" he accidentally shouted before covering his mouth with both hands. His eyes darted over to Starlow's body, looking for any sign of disturbance. She kept breathing as she had been and he sighed a sigh of relief. He pulled out the page he had ripped out of the book about transmutation and looked at it in the dim candle light.

"I gotta get her to read this. But how?" He looked at her as he pondered. "...What if it's right next to her when she wakes up? Then she reads it out loud when she sees what it says, and boom."

He slowly placed the paper next to the pillow she slept upon and made sure the spell was face up. He looked at it again as he thought of an issue.

"I really hope she doesn't read it in her head. This whole plan is completely dependent on her reading it aloud… to herself." He stared at the window again and into the navy sky. "I need to get some sleep."

He laid his head down once more and closed his eyes.

"Goodnight, Chippy," he said faintly before succumbing to the drowsiness of rest.

* * *

Okay, I have some explaining to do.  
Firstly, Hi, I'm not dead. I've mostly just been preoccupied with college and other personal things that required a certain degree of constant attention to be handled appropriately. Secondly, I had actually written this chapter 10 months ago, yet I don't really know why I didn't post it when I finished looking it over. Thirdly, this story isn't officially on hiatus, it may just take me a month or two to get another chapter out as, as stated above, I'm pretty busy nowadays. I know the crowd of roughly 4 people has died out during my absence, but I'll keep writing this story for the crickets in the back of the room who fell asleep, just in case they wake up and need something to chirp at for leg exercise.

Let me know if I made any errors, or if you have any thing to say, shoot me a PM. Happy holidays guys!


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